PRESS BRIEFING DURING COURTESY CALL ON THE GOVERNOR OF ELGEYO MARAKWET COUNTY BY PARTNERS OF THE UGATUZI NA HAKI PROJECT 7TH OCTOBER 2020

The governor of Elgeyo Marakwet County, HE Engineer Alex Tolgos, represented by Deputy Governor Wisley Rotich, has today hosted Ms Karen Poore, the Country Director of Dan Church Aid, Bishop Paul Korir, the Chairman of NCCK in North Rift Region, and Dr Dominic Biwott, the Chief Executive Officer of North Rift Economic Bloc, who paid him a courtesy call.

The Dan Church Aid, National Council of Churches of Kenya and NOREB are partners in the implementation of Ugatuzi na Haki (Devolution and Justice) Project. The project is promoting increase citizen engagement in governance processes, enhancing capacities of county governments to mainstream climate change in their budgets and plans, and strengthening inter county climate change governance.

During the meeting, the Governor appreciated that the project went out of its way to equip community members to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic by providing 385 boxes of bar soap, 216 bottles of sanitizer, 110 hand washing buckets and 3,000 face masks. In addition, 60 families affected by floods were provided with unconditional funds to enable them rebuild their lives.

The County Government further noted that during public participation forums, communities that were trained through the Ugatuzi na Haki project presented a higher number memorandums touching on climate change mitigation than in the other areas. This is critical because the county has suffered great losses of life and property to floods, landslides and droughts. The County Secretary, Paul Chemutut, appreciated that there was a strong contribution of public officers in the implementation of different programmes in collaboration with partners including the NCCK and DCA. The county government committed to finalize the development of the Sustainable Management of Tree Growing Policy and the Climate Change Funding Framework.

While appreciating the partnership, support and good working relationship NOREB has enjoyed with NCCK and Dan Church Aid, Bloc CEO Dr. Dominic Biwott expressed the commitment of the regional body in coordinating the enactment of environment protection laws and the implementation of climate action programmes and projects within the member counties.

Briefing the Governor on the Ugatuzi na Haki project, Bishop Korir urged the county government to expand the scope of prioritization of community identified issues in the county plans and budgets. He further urged for speedy finalization and implementation of the Climate Change Funding Framework that the county government is developing in line with the Inter County Climate Change Governance Cooperation Agreement signed in June 2019 by the counties that share the Kerio River Ecosystem.

Karen Poore, the Country Director of Dan Church Aid, appreciated the continued partnership in supporting communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change. She recognized that success in addressing climate change is dependent on empowerment of individual community members to deal with climate change issues at their level.

The partners in the meeting concluded by recognizing that effective and sustainable environmental management is essential to attain the aspiration in the National Anthem:

Let all with one accord, in common bond united, build this our nation together

And the glory of Kenya, the fruit of our labour, fill every heart with thanksgiving

May God bless Kenya always

Signed on this 7^th day of October 2020 at the Elgeyo Marakwet County Government office, Iten

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